By Mary Corrado
Editor
The Chicago Public Library's (CPL) pattern of insulting and injuring Sulzer Regional Library, 4455 N. Lincoln Ave., began with its very creation in 1985. Sulzer was built with design flaws and one-third smaller than planned, causing crowded conditions and leaky gutters, windows and skylights. Sewage backup, black mold, and cracked ceilings and walls resulted. After some coverage in Inside and other media, carpenters have ripped out some of the moldy infrastructure and replaced it — but the leaks remain, so the problem will recur.
About five years ago the City commissioned a feasibility study on the renovation and expansion of Sulzer, but the study has been withheld from Ald. Gene Schulter (47th), the media and the public despite Freedom of Information requests since 2001. In September 2001, CPL Commissioner Mary Dempsey said the study was completed in March 2001 and that she'd read it, but she wouldn't release it because "it was only preliminary"; at this time the Public Building Commission promised to commission a new, expanded, comprehensive report to be ready by December 2001. That report has also never appeared. It is believed that the original study calls for $17 million in repairs to Sulzer and Woodson regional libraries ($10 million for Sulzer, $7 million for Woodson). If CPL intends to downgrade Sulzer to a branch, it would account for its reluctance to invest in needed repairs even though it continues to spend money on new branches throughout the city.
The very popular and experienced Leah Steele was forced out of her job as director of Sulzer Regional Library in August 2001, another affront to Sulzer and its staff and patrons.
August 2001 marked the beginning of the six-week book purge. Dempsey sent staff to swipe books off shelves: the Koran, the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, "Schindler's List" by Thomas Keneally, "Like I Was Sayin'" by Mike Royko, "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London, books by Tom Wolfe — nothing was sacred. Ten percent of the total collection, or 35,000 books, were hauled away and discarded. Usually culling a collection is done by local librarians who know the use of the collection, but this highly unusual purge involved central administration staff attacking the stacks, and trucks and trucks full of perfectly good books disappearing down the road. Dempsey refused to respond to media — and told library staff that only spokesperson Margot Burke could talk to media. During the current purge of videos, staff are again forbidden to talk to media.
"...They're taking out books that we worked very hard to get here in the first place...Are we properly handling the taxpayers' dollars?" said Schulter. CPL claimed the culling was of damaged and redundant books and served the purpose of making room for new books. The quantity was far too great to be sold at Secondhand Prose, a resale shop at Harold Washington Library Center. Most were probably dumped in landfills. Meanwhile, book budgets were cut and Internet funding was increased.
At this time, in 2001, the volunteer group Friends of Conrad Sulzer Regional Library began to fear that Librarian V positions would be stripped from Sulzer and the library's holdings downsized—converting Sulzer into a mere branch library. Now this fear has been realized. Librarian V positions have all disappeared from Sulzer. Many remaining staff members have been bumped down a grade in title and in pay. Those who could take early retirement have fled. In fact, the total number of professional librarians working for CPL has dropped from roughly 350 to roughly 250. The remaining staff face work overload, low morale and burnout.
On Aug. 23, 2001, Dempsey met with members of Friends of Sulzer Library, Ravenswood Community Council and Ald. Gene Schulter. Dempsey afterwards issued an unsigned memo claiming agreement on various points, including the formation of a new Sulzer library committee ostensibly replacing the outspoken Friends of Sulzer, which has donated much money for books, volunteer thank-you dinners, a piano, etc. The memo went on to say: "The Sulzer Regional Library is and remains a regional library in the Chicago Public Library system. The Sulzer Regional Library will be administered by a regional library director. The media collection of the Sulzer Regional Library is not being disbanded or removed from the collection. " CPL never clarified what was taken away or when the purge would be over.
CPL provided no data on the number of books it planned to remove, and never conducted a public meeting regarding the book removal, so its conduct appeared to violate Illinois' Open Meetings Act and Sections 1-3 of the Local Library Act, which stipulates that a public library board must "render the use of the library of the greatest benefit to the greatest number of residents and taxpayers."
Decisions about book purchases have become more centralized. Under Dempsey's leadership, despite the new branches, annual overall circulation of books dropped from eight million to seven million. Now circulation figures are no longer released.
Many donations used to come to Sulzer, so paperbacks for the popular reading room almost never had to be purchased. Donations that were not useful were sold by the Friends of Sulzer, bringing in about $15 a day. Now donations are declined or discarded, and the Friends of Sulzer is prohibited from contributing money to the operation of Sulzer. Currently the funds they have raised are sitting untouched in a bank because CPL won't permit its donation.
Sulzer earned the "Best City Library" award in 1997. Thanks to a history of affronts by CPL, this once-proud regional library has been brought to its knees. And now the video purge is underway. |
